


you can change your face

by PersephoneHemingway



Series: part gold [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Eyes, F/M, Half!Time Lord Reader, Headcanon, Name Changes, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, Reader-Insert, Regeneration, Season 9 Doctor Who, Secrets, Self-Indulgent, The Hybrid - Freeform, Timey-Wimey, just ignore me i'm back on my daydreaming shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 02:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20806994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PersephoneHemingway/pseuds/PersephoneHemingway
Summary: but i'll still know it's you





	you can change your face

**Author's Note:**

> eh, it is what it is.  
read on for another one of my headcanons lmao

Your jaw dropped; your body struck deer-in-the-headlights dumb.

There was a man in the street fiddling with the door of a police box.

"Doctor!? Is that you!?"

The odd rumpled magician man looked up upon hearing his name, and those eyes—they bored into your _soul. _You could tell right away he's seen so much more now—it must've been centuries for him... it had been for you as well, but still. _He looks so lonely_…

"Ah, depends on what you need, I suppose. Do we know each other?"

"Oh, oh. I guess not. Ah, you had a different face then. And I don't need anything—just wanted to say hello to an old friend." A sad smile.

"Oh, well, hello!" His prominent eyebrows scrunched together as he squinted. "Although I don't usually forget a face. I'm afraid I don't remember you."

"That's alright. I was pretty different then, too."

"Mind giving an old man a hint?"

A wicked smile. "I think it'll be more fun if you can figure it out on your own."

"Well, right-o then, up for a spot of adventure?"

"You'll take me with you!?"

"Of course, once a companion, always a companion! If you're willing, and around. Memory or no memory!"

You've been waiting so long to find him again. "Then let's go!" _Allons-y!_

&

Your mom had told you bedtime stories about the Doctor and how he stole a spaceship and ran away. He was like a fairy tale, and then you’d _met him_. Traveled with him. The last time you saw him was minutes before you’d been shot out an airlock some great distance above earth from a satellite ship. You’d crashed like a meteor, but you’d survived with a burst of light and a new face.

You’d never told him you could change. You really didn’t know that you could change, until you did. The last thing you’d wanted to do was disappoint the hero of your childhood—you didn’t want to give him the hope of having a piece of home with him, if you were just going to die like the rest of his human companions.

So you’d never held it against him that he’d left you for dead.

&

"I told you to stop running off!"

"I had a plan!"

"Obviously it didn't work, considering we're both chained to the same wall."

"There were a few.. miscalculations.. but-!"

"Miscalculations, (Y/N)? Really?"

"Oh hush, space dad."

&

"Which face?"

"Hm?"

"Which of my old faces did you travel with? I- I hate to admit I still don't remember you."

"Hm, should I tell you? Or would that give too much away..."

"I'm not used to not knowing things, (Y/N)."

"But you love a good mystery, Doctor! I wouldn't want to rob you of mine!"

"You're a cruel woman."

&

"No look, see!" You pointed at a series of interdimensional probability and cause and effect formulas you had frantically chalked out on the board. "This happens because of this, and if that happens this happens, so if we avoid this, we can fix all of that!"

"No wonder I kept you around.."

"Now if only you could remember my face, hm?"

_Who is she that she can know the complexities of space-time butterfly effect?_

&

You sat facing each other criss-crossed on the floor of the console room playing _war_. You were winning.

“C’mon, give me a hint.” A five and a three; you took the cards.

“No way, Doctor—you oughta be smart enough to figure me out on your own.” A jack and a four; this round went to the Doctor.

“Well, then I don’t know. I give up. It’s a clutter on my mind.”

“Heeeyy, no! Don’t give up!” You pouted, dropped a queen, smirked, and waited for the Doctor’s card. He looked to you unamused as he flipped a ten. Your eyes flicked down.

“Fine, fine! I’ll make it easier!” You picked up the two cards and made a point of showing their faces to the Doctor, fanning them between your fingers. You handed them to him.

He furrowed his eyebrows and held one card in each hand, flickering through all the possibilities until finally his eyes flashed recognition and locked onto yours.

"Wha- wh- _Kiera?" _He looked both unsure and critically certain. His voice was a harsh whisper of disbelief.

"Guilty. About time. Technically, my first name was Blessing. Or, well, _The_ Blessing. But that doesn’t jive so well on earth, does it? I told you _Kiera_ because it was the first name I saw. My second face was Sunny, then there was Summer, and now I call myself (Y/N). New face, new name, see?"

"I- _How_?"

"Well, you see my mother—"

"No, no, I mean— you.. you _died_. I saw you fall— you _died_. Donna said—"

"I regenerated."

"Y- you re- regenerated?"

"Yes, I regenerate. Thus, my many faces. I have pictures, if you want to see—"

"You're _time lord_?"

You looked a bit dazed. "Well, yeah. But only half, really. I thought you'd caught on once I mentioned I changed my face? Am I missing something—are there other ways for me to have once been Kiera?"

"Uh, yes, but.. _time lord,_ Kiera, you're _time lord_?"

"(Y/N). And half, I'm only half time lord. I only have one heart, see?" You pulled the Doctor's hand to your chest. He jerked it back as if you were burning.

"Doctor, wha-?"

"You're _half_? Half time lord, half..."

"Human, yes. You’re very slow today."

"_You're the hybrid_."

"Uh, yes I suppose I'm a hybrid?"

"No, you're _the_ hybrid.. Kie- (Y/N), you don't understand how dangerous—"

"Oh, I think you know very well I understand the dangers of my situation, Doctor. I did end up stuck on Pluto for a bit, you know. Let me tell you, it doesn't change much from year to year. "

"No, there's— the other time lords, they—"

"What other time lords? It's just us, isn't it?"

"Oh, (Y/N)... I know what they were so afraid of now..."

"What, me? Why would a bunch of dead time lords be afraid of a half-breed like me?"

The Doctor reached for your hands and held them close.

“(Y/N), no, it’s… they’re _killing_ for your identity. You’re some threat to them… I don’t… they want you dead, (Y/N).”

You blinked.

“Well then. Same old song and dance, yeah? Staying alive— isn’t that the most honest adventure of them all?”


End file.
